"Award Winning" Church Roll-top Cabinet

”Award Winning”
I am honored to have this project selected by my fellow lumberjocks as the winner of the Winter 2007 “Best Craftsmanship” award. I appreciate the award tremendously, and thanks to everyone that selected this project as their winner.

This Project has been “SOLD”. If you would like something similar, please email me at mark@decoustudio.com

You can see more of this project at: http://www.decoustudio.com/indoor2.html

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If you would like to see my other posted projects please visit here:
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/projects
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To visit my Blog listings, go here:
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog

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Project Story:
This was a time consuming project. I quit counting hours at 475, and I know it went way on past that for quite a ways. Mostly I quit counting, as I had sketched and dreamed of a project that was way more complicated than the church would be able to pay me for.

However, I wanted to do something challenging, something original, so I struck out on it anyway, telling the church board that if they would pay the same amount as what they found in the Church Equipment catalog, which showed a particle board with vinyl laminate Electronic Equipment cabinet with a roll top front, that I would not let them down, but would make sure they felt they got more than their money’s worth. They ended up paying me almost twice what I had asked for, a nice compliment for my work.

I did this project in my spare time, as I had another day job at the time. My decision was to build a unique heirloom, that would be something that would cause people to stop and look at my work, and some day ponder how much I love the God that saved me.

Built from Red Oak, Curly White oak, and a small amount of walnut, the cabinet holds the sound equipment for a small country church.

I built the same church a communion table a couple of years before this for another memorial fund project, and so I wanted something in style that would connect the two together. The type of connection that any visitor to the church would notice that the pieces were not from a catalog, and that the same builder did both pieces.

A couple of years have passed now, and the cabinet is something I see almost every week, as it sits in the church my family and I attend. On Easter Sunday this year (2006), a man visiting the area from Oregon happened to stop me after the service and after almost everyone had cleared out of the building, to ask where the church had found such a unique piece of furniture.

I thought he was going to chide me, or give me one of those, “ten second looks, with a ‘sure is nice’” type comments. You know the type, the kind of feeling you got while in elementary school when mother complimented your crayon drawing, but she was looking at it upside down! That was what I expected to receive from him, I have gotten many of those over the years.

As a side note, since those terrorizing childhood days, now when my 4 or 5 year old shows me a drawing, my first question is, “tell me about your drawing…” and then they do, since I had no idea it was what they were describing in words.

Moving on back to the story, this man from Oregon, was excited when I told him that I built the cabinet he was inquiring about, and he asked if I also built the communion table upfront, which I assured him I had.

He went on to say that he is a trim carpenter in Oregon, and that he stared at that piece of my work for the whole service, knowing that someone had spent a lot of love and hours building it.

He expressed that he had trained as a pastor in seminary, but never entered the pastorate work, instead working in the trim carpentry business. He was so excited about the many Christian symbols I carved, the verses I captured in lettering on the piece, and the “soul” behind all the design details I discussed with him, that he decided to go home and build a prayer alter for his prayer closet room, where he could work hard to build something wit his hands that expressed his faith in Christ.

It seems that even better than getting paid, motivating another woodworker to express himself passionately and intimately, in wood could be close to the highest compliment I have ever gotten. Something that hasn’t worn off since Easter Sunday.

We talked in fast excited words for as long as my wife would wait for us before getting too mad (usually takes about 15 minutes), and we hit off a quick friendship, with plans to stay in touch by email when he returned to Oregon.

I decided with this rolltop design to take my fellow lumberjock’s, Duane Kohles, advice to use the cable stay system. He had designed and built a rolltop for a kitchen cabinet project he did, and offered to run the roll top slats through his router bit system and do them for me. That sounded like a great idea, so thanks to Duane, the slats work great, and I don’t have to be concerned about the roll top coming apart someday.

Specifications:

• Materials: Red Oak, Curly White Oak, Flame Burl Mahogany, Walnut, & Antique textured Glass.
• Finish: A hand-rubbed clear Deft semi-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish was sprayed, with approximately 15-20 layers being rubbed out to insure a smooth buttery feeling finish.
• Lettering: carved letters are done in a raised relief style.
• The upper cabinet has antique textured glass with a carved frame.
• This cabinet holds the electronic sound equipment without taking away from the historical feel of the old Victorian-Era church.
• The unique style of the trestle base is carved and feature barley twisted legs.
• The Cross in the Base works like a butterfly dovetail, holding the wishbone support frame in place.
• The dovetailed drawer box was made from Flame Burl Mahogany with a walnut runner for the drawer guide.
• Each foot of the base has a small relief carved symbol relevant to the faith of a Christian Church member, including:

1. A Cross
2. The Greek Letter Alpha
3. The Greek Letter Omega
4. A Crown
5. A plate with Communion Bread
6. A Cup of Wine
7. A Descending Dove
8. The Ichthys (fish) symbol.

Photography by Trey Allen, Wichita, KS www.treyallen.com

thanks,
Mark DeCou
www.decoustudio.com

(This Project Story, design, and construction is protected by copywrite 1-19-2007)

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P.S.
If are you like reading about Church Furnishings, then you might also be interested in:

Here are the posted projects from other Church Work:

• Hymn Number Board: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/2269
• Speaker’s Lectern: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/1428
• Processional Cross: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/2019
• Matching Side Altars: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/2122
• Restored Sacrifice: Altar: not yet posted
• Restored High Altar: not yet posted
• Carved Lettering on a Communion Tablet: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/42

Here is a list of the previous blogs about Church Related Projects:
1) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/1166
2) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/962
3) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/370
4) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/312
5) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/55
6) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/11
7) http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/10

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-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan